In April, 2000, I traveled through some of the most interesting parts of far north Siberia on the way to and from the North Pole. At the time, I had no idea how important this region would become for the future of climate change.
Pen Hadow, Gordon Eadie and I flew together overnight from Moscow to Khatanga, a town on the Khatanga River in North Siberia that had for years been closed to western visitors, until Perestroika relaxed some of the rules. Nevertheless, we soon found out, there were still plenty of rules in Russia- even in remote Russia!
The plane company was named Krash Air (!) and much later on one return leg, a muzzled black bear on a leash held by its trainer plodded down the aisle to its ‘seat’ in the back inside cargo area, separated from us only by a web of straps. You could hear its claws scratching as it ambled along. I decided it must have been sedated and maybe destined for the Moscow Circus.
Later, I watched with horror as the stewardess poured passengers’ left-over ‘Cokes’ all together into a vacuum tube which she shook, vacuum sealed and put back on ice – to serve us again later! Needless to say, I abstained the next time “Coke” was offered!
When we landed in Khatanga, an outpost town on the Taymyr Peninsula which stretches out into the Arctic Ocean, after the long overnight flight my first breath of outside air made me cough spasmodically. (The same thing happened in Antarctica later on – this is a natural protective reaction of adjustment.) Soon, we were stumbling across double thresholds and pushing through a series of doors meant to keep the warm air of the “new” hotel Khatanga inside.
This hotel was so “new” that it was still under construction. Women and men had to occupy different floors, but the men’s communal bathroom was not finished, so they used our communal bath as well. And…I had a roommate in our tiny bunk room: A very nice and pretty young Slovenian woman who wanted to be the “first Slovenian girl to ski to the North Pole,” she told me proudly. Every night she wrote postcards to send back home to her sponsors. Over the next few days there, I became protective of her. Her outfits did not seem warm enough to me. Also, I worried about the state of her gloves and offered her an extra pair of liners, which she turned down. I never saw her again after we went different ways at Shredny Island, but did not hear any bad news either, so I hope she made it as planned!
Everyone in the hotel ate all 3 meals around a huge table for about 20 people. Food was spartan, and pretty unappetizing. I ate mostly peanut butter and crackers there. Food was much better later, when we were out on the ice and eating our own camp rations!
It did not take long to realize that the few people who lived in the area of Khatanga were mostly very hard working. They had to make do in many ways. For example, some used dog fur for coats if they could not get any other kind. So, you might see a dog with patches of fur missing, cut out by the owners so their pets would not be taken by someone in need of a coat.
The other guests in the hotel were all very interesting! Most of them were scientists who had come to examine the young Woolly Mammoth carcass that dropped from a melting riverbank nearby in the fall, and was stored in an ice vault near the runway. We examined a small shed chock full of mammoth parts also found that way. Unusual melting and river runs were already underway in Siberia, even if it was only 2000, and still felt pretty cold to me.
There is a wonderful new New Yorker article I encourage everyone to read. It explains the climate related impacts in Siberia, and what it means for us all. The same geophysical phenomena are happening in Alaska and Canada and all across the western arctic, but those areas are relatively sparsely populated. However, in the larger cities and industry of the Siberian Arctic, the immediate impacts of climate change are more obvious.
I will have more about this and my Siberian adventure in a future blog! To be Continued!